Закупуване на Warrior Kings: Battles

Относно тази игра

Warrior Kings: Battles comes complete with a full skirmish mode, boasting a proficiency of computer AI not yet seen in an RTS product. AI Generals build a functioning economy, offensive/defensive armies, correctly control formations, and intelligently probe your defenses, looking for your weak points. AI Diplomacy, a major new feature, makes you think you are playing a human opponent(s), giving a new depth to gaming.

Features:

Unparalleled real-time strategy gaming, using radical 3D technology to bring terrain, provinces and cultures alive like no other games in the genre

Use real military tactics with a supreme range of combat tools - select from cavalry, rocket launchers, catapults, spies, war elephants, arch druids, elementals, golems, summoned beings and many more! Strategically use terrain, arms and formations to beat all others

Advanced A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) computer opponents probe your defences and find weaknesses unlike any other strategy game. AI Generals even seek to win alliances and will bargain with you to gain the upper hand!

This for me was a must buy. I remember this game from many moons ago, and absolutely loved it. Though perhaps outdated compared to many modern RTS games, for me the nostalgia element is what winds this game over.

There are flaws to it, but you find that with many old games. You have to enjoy it for what it is.

I seldom write reviews for games, but I feel compelled to write one for this stellar game.

I bought this game back when it came out originally, and I have played it frequently over the years. So while my steam hours are very low, I can assure you I have sunk a significant amount of time into this game over the years!

WK:B is/was the sorta-sequel to Warrior Kings.It's essentially just a more polished version which added better MultiPlayer options, more AI options and a Skirmish mode.

The Good:WK:B has some fantastic concepts that still make it stand out to me today.

You don't choose a faction when you start a round. Rather as you play, you choose which tech you want to explore which opens up/removes some options from the tech tree. This is great for multiplayer because unlike virtually all RTS, you never know for certain what your opponent will be building in each round.

The variety of troops/vehicles is great, and there are some very entertaining units.

Supply lines are implemented in a way that heavily affects your strategy. In order to actually support your eventual army you need villagers working in your villages collecting goods, which are then need to be transported via wagon back to your home base for use. (Which all happens automatically). The actual wagons themselves can be attacked and destroyed/looted by the enemy. Certain troops (projectiles) will need ammo during ammo from Supply Wagons, which eat away from your resource pool.

Villagers that go and collect wood, stone and gold actually cut down trees, and eventually will remove them from the map, which not only looks cool but adds more strategy.

If you go the pagan route in the tech tree, you can build a giant wickerman and while sacrificing your peasants at its burning feet release a giant red demon (Abidos) that runs around the map hunting your opponents.

It is possible to play this multiplayer over the internet via a virtual LAN (via hamachi or something like that), which is probably why this is being listed as Single Player as you can't play directly via steam.

There is a ton of maps in the game. (They have to be unlocked in the campaign before you can play them in skirmish mode though)

The Bad: You can't play multiplayer without messing about with a VPN.

It's old, and while there is a mod to allow better resolutions, it doesn't look good by 2014 standards :)

There are lots of little glitches in the game that can be frustrating. Mostly around pathing for your troops. There is a formation feature, but its not very well implemented.

As with most RTS, the AI doesn't have much I (intelligence). So after a while you will find it hard to be challenged unless you are outnumbered by opponents.

This one could be good/bad depending on what you are looking for, but a full game on a large map with several human opponents can last for a long long time! (On the bright side, you can save the game and return to it another time)

Bottom Line - At it's core this is a great strategy game. If you love RTS and missed this one when first came out, give it a shot! (Make sure you enable "Free Look" in the options, which allows you full camera control (mmb) rather than the silly default camera view)

Buggy pathfinding - can be worked around, but don't expect a fix - the game's devs went bankrupt and it's 11 years oldAI generals can be predictableMusic can be jarring, dull or downright irritatingExtremely small multiplayer community

THE LONG

This is the first review I've ever written for a game, and I usually refrain from writing them but this game holds a special place in my heart. I've played this game since it came out in 2003, and let me tell you it is one of the best RTS games there is. The level of freedom in choosing an alignment or faction is brilliant and unique, and the replay value, thanks to its skirmish mode, is massive. I have spent countless hours playing this game before it came out on Steam, building massive kingdoms and launching invasions on enemy cities with vast armies. But like all games it has its strengths and weaknesses.

The game is set in a fantasy pseudo-medieval world where all the things people of that time feared and believed in are real. The selection of units is truly vast, ranging from Barbarians, Arch-Demons and Witches to Inquisitors, Archangels and War Elephants, to Arquebus-wielding Gunners, Bombard cannons and Rocket Artillery, as well as less fantastical troops such as pikemen, knights and archers.

Of course, the game is quite old now, so the graphics aren't its strong point, appearing blocky and, when zoomed in, blurry and lacking detail and definition, but who plays games solely for graphics anyway? The art style is not as iconic as other games nor as distinct, but it's certainly not sub-par, and it creates the necessary medieval feel. Building a large and bustling city filled with shops and merchants, with carts going back and forth delivering goods from outlying farmlands and settlements is truly a sight to behold, and is extremely satisfying to just look at especially after spending a lot of time building it all.

The music is either hit or miss, with some tracks being really good and some being really bad, and the way the music jolts around at times can be very unsettling and quite disruptive. The game plays quite relaxing, serene tracks while not in combat, but when your troops start fighting the music ramps up to war-drums. This would have been a good thing if it didn't keep stopping and starting, playing war drums when your enemy sends a lone man into your base (like a scout) and you order your men to kill him. Some of the tracks are too loud as well, and play in instances where they seem inappropiate, such as epic-battle music playing when the enemy sends a small scouting force and kills a few peasants. However some tracks, namely the ones carried over from the previous game Warrior Kings, are very good, and really capture the essence of the world of Orbis.

The Campaign is not as good as the first game, being a series of rather simple skirmish-type maps, with a number of AI generals to overcome on each map. What makes it worth playing through however is the fact that you unlock the maps and the AI generals for the skirmish and multiplayer modes as well.

There are five factions, or alignments in the game (or seven depending on whether you build a Church or a Maypole while following the Renaissance path). These are the Imperial, which features zealous inquisitors and powerful knightly units, the Pagan, which features Demons and savage barbaric warriors, and the Renaissance which has access to the most powerful technology. In Skirmish or Multiplayer modes each player whether AI or human starts off with a basic Manor and several Peasants, and may choose any alignment as they go along, and the alignment is determined by which buildings you construct.

For example, you can choose to follow the Imperial path, building churches, monasteries and cathedrals and you will get access to Acts of God, allowing you to call down meteors, lightning storms and plagues upon your enemies to cause mayhem while building a solid force of troops with powerful knights and longbowmen. Alternatively you can follow the Pagan path, and doing so allows you to summon hordes of powerful demons and use sorcery and subtlety to disrupt your enemies' economy before invading with powerful close-combat warriors. Methods of doing this include possessing enemy peasants and spreading heresy, which stops peasants in a radius around the possessed unit from working until the heretic is killed.

Of course you can also eschew superstition and follow the Renaissance path, the "technological" faction which gives you access to the best economic upgrades, the best unit upgrades and the best war machines, including the truly devastating Rocket Launcher and cannon at the cost of sub-par melee troops, but with ranks upon ranks of deadly musketeers enemies will be hard pressed to actually get into combat with you!

The actual battles themselves in this game are very similar to the Total War games, following a doctrine of "combined arms" - that is, heavy infantry beat heavy cavalry, ranged troops beat heavy infantry and so on. Each type of unit is countered by another, but some units if massed in large numbers can overcome even their counter units, and if you use flanking and the right formations you can beat heavy infantry with heavy cavalry. Terrain also plays an important part in this game, with ranged units benefiting from increased range and damage when firing from on top of a hill, and suffering from greater inaccuracy when firing into forested areas. Cavalry move more slowly through forested areas and when moving over certain types of terrain such as muddy areas and through forests.

Not only are there the combat units, but also agent-type units like spies, priests and merchants. Spies can do a lot of disruptive things such as blowing up gatehouses, committing arson, stowing away on enemy carts then disembarking in enemy territory and spying on them. Priests will protect your troops from demonic influence such as Succubus powers and can also buff your troops with blessings and exorcise or banish demons, defending your kingdom from supernatural forces. Furthermore there is a Diplomacy system that, while simplistic, allows you to form alliances with other players, request for peace or declare war. You can also send tributes to other players to "buy them over".

There are ships in the game but you only get access to them in Multiplayer matches, if you can find one that is. There is no multiplayer community to speak of for this game, however there is a group on Steam that organises games every so often, but it is mercurial, so don't get your hopes up. Of course you could always play against your friends on a LAN.

While there are a few small issues like pathfinding (that is admittedly quite rubbish, but not gamebreaking and can be worked around) the rest of the game makes up for it. The way you build a kingdom, choosing your alignment as you go along is totally unique and I haven't seen this kind of thing in any other RTS, and the depth of the factions with all their little ins and outs are superb. The music could be better, or rather better implemented and the pathfinding is very weak, but the game is deep, with tons of replay value trying out the different alignments and then trying different tactics with each alignment, using pike & shot formations, artillery batteries, demonic hordes, massive formations of knights or disrupting your enemy with espionage and subterfuge.

Game is good, mostly because of nostalgic reasons but also the mechanics and features of strategy in the game is somewhat unique compared to other RTS games. And besides you can summon satan and his demons to destroy your foes which is fun.

I absolutely loved the original Warrior Kings and this game only improved on the experience! I'm so glad that it's on steam now, since my old disk has been getting fairly scratched up over the years and it's nice to have a reliable copy.

While the game's graphics have probably not aged very well for those not viewing it through nostalgia-tinted lens, the strategy side is still rock solid, and it's implementation of formations and terrain remain uniquely excellent in my opinion. I know the old version had some stability issues, but I believe those have been addressed as of now. The single player story is somewhat weaker in this game, but I'd recommend giving it a try since I still found it enjoyably challenging. The multiplayer is where this entry shines though. I've had some good times unleashing my high tech trebuchets on the unwashed masses of my mate's demon hordes! And if that sentence didn't sell you on it, then I don't know what will... Buy it already!

CONS:- clunky & outdated graphics- some AI bugs- no story in the campaign, just skirmish battles- maps start (mostly) with just manors built- hard to set up a mulitplayer game

Comment:Clunky graphics, AI path glitches and a bland campaign. But it is still fun to play. While I personally like the original Warrior Kings much more this is a good game for anyone who likes medieval-themed strategy games with a dash of fantasy. I feel they could have kept the epicness of the Artosian campaign in but I get their choice. However it feels weird that Telamagna (capital of the world Orbis in which the game is set) is just a bunch of buildings at the start of the last battle. However the AI is balanced and will give you a challenge until you figure out a strategy. In terms of mulitplayer this game is far ahead of the previous one and is really fun to play with your friends as then you will have more time to cherish all the different tech trees and the beautiful castle building.

When I saw this game in the New Releases I had a weird sense of deja vu... You see, I was under the impression that this game was actually just a dream I had when I was a kid, but seeing the screenshots brought back a flood of memories. Warrior Kings: Battles was massively underated as an RTS of its time. It emphasizes city-building and economy in ways that other popular RTS games of the same era did not, while still providing a deep and engaging combat strategy experience. While it certainly doesn't hold up against the expensive Civ games or competitive RTS games of today, it is certainly worth checking out whenever sales bring it down to a more reasonable price that accounts for its age. While it is unlikely that we'll see any reemergence of any sort of multiplayer scene, the campaign mode is thoroughly enjoyable and often challenging. When I played it as a child I would have rated it a 9/10 but I think that these days it could be fairly called a 6 or 7. If you have nostalgia for a past age of RTS games, Warrior Kings: Battles may pique your interest.

This version of the game does NOT have the standart campaign, but a risk-like map, where you can conquer different provinces.Despite it's age the game runs without problems on windows 7.The unique aspects of the game still impress today, and building your empire is way more fun than in any other RTS I've ever played. Mutating your faction through different religion is also good fun.Of course the game has some minor problems, like unit-pathing when moving in formation, but it's not a gamebreaker.Have fun playing this absolute beast of a game :)

Graphics: By 2003 standards, this quite is kind of low compared to Rise of Nations which also released the same year. The ground looks very bland so does the units. (4/10).

Sounds: The music sometimes doesn't relate to the game and when in combat, the music can sound sometimes very awkward. (4/10).

Gameplay: Gameplay is simple, you build small settlements around a keep and your peasants farm/mine by a village, take the resources to the village and the cart will take the resources from the village to your keep (manor). You build troops to kill the other enemy. (4/10).

Level Design: Level design, for Skirmish, the maps are hideous, down right awful looking and a pain to the eye, there is very few limited maps and they all about look the same; some sand here and there, nice bland greenness for grass here and there and splotch down some random stone blobs and gold blobs as well as tree patches. (5/10).

AI: The AI aren't smart but are made simple (nothing outstanding), AI will sometimes derp out and not do what you tell them to do, and when idle, the game doesn't tell you that you have a group of villagers idle. When your troops move about they have bad pathfinding and I realized that my troops zig zagged left and right when moving to areas and controlling large amount of troops is awkward and hard to place into where you want them to perform combat while setting up their tactics. (4/10).

UI: The UI is very small but comfortable to the eye and gives you a huge portion of the map to look at, one flaw that deters me giving UI a 10 is that when hovering over what to build; it doesn't show you facts about the building and doesn't tell you what it does UNLESS you have the resources to build it. And all buildings until you build the presets for and research it, you can't see the building (it's whitened out). 7/10.

Game Writing: N/A (haven't played campaign).

Content Design: The game has quite a bit of content but it feels like it could have a lot more content because it feels so bland and feels like it has a gap with the content (for example, only about 5-6 infantry units you can build and about 3-5 cav units you can build). (6/10).

I may not have meany steam hours but i must of spent months on this game a look back on my child hood and this was 1 of the shining lighs for its age its grathics are beond average and the mechanicks are simple but very in depth and it takes you gradualy making you think trategickly should i get that this or that and for every victory you earn no rewards and mechanics to beat the harder stages its very simple but greatly implemented this game should be bigger if this was released now it would become a hit aslong as the content was up to date im a big fan of this game and if you like highly strategic games with growing strengths and increasing depth this is for you